The Orlando Magic can salvage their season if, and only if, they replicate the spirit and effort they showed during the final 21 minutes of their game Sunday night against the Boston Celtics.

That stretch must serve as the Magic's benchmark from now on.

The critical turning point arrived during a stoppage in play. The Celtics outhustled the Magic to open the third quarter and built a 67-54 lead, forcing Orlando coach Scott Skiles to call a timeout. Skiles ripped into his players, challenging them to play with the same effort they showed throughout the first month and a half of their season.

A short while later, Fournier caught a pass from Nik Vucevic and sank a 3-pointer.

After a pair of Celtics misses, Hezonja received a Vucevic pass and made a trey, putting Orlando up 99-95 with 4:46 to play and forcing Boston coach Brad Stevens to call a timeout. The basket probably ranks as the biggest basket of Hezonja's brief NBA career, and Vucevic celebrated the moment by patting Hezonja on the back of the head.

In a career-high 33 minutes, Hezonja scored a career-high 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting and added three assists.

"We're a young team," Hezonja said. "We've got to outplay our [opponents] with our energy. So that was the key."

Gordon also provided a boost, trying a career high with 19 points and collecting a career-high 14 rebounds.

The game's turning point occurred in the Magic huddle with Orlando trailing by 13 with 8:39 left in the third quarter.

Once again, as they had throughout January, the Magic were playing soft.

Skiles appealed to his players' pride.

"He basically challenged us to rise to the occasion," Gordon said. "There wasn't anything that he could say [about] X's-and-O's, and that's really what it came down to. There was nothing he could write on the white board. It was just whether we had heart or not, and we picked it up."

The Magic (21-25) and the Celtics (27-22) played two nights earlier in Boston, and the Celtics thumped the Magic 113-94.

Sunday was different.

Six Magic players scored in double figures, led by Fournier, who scored 24 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field.

Orlando played its best defensive game in weeks. Boston made 16 of its 46 attempts from 3-point range and finished the game shooting 41.9 percent from the field.

Marcus Smart, a backup point guard, scored a game-high 26 points, and he completed a four-point play with 14.6 seconds remaining to pull Boston within 117-114.

But Vucevic sealed the Magic's win a few seconds later by sinking a pair of free throws.

"We're a hustle team," Skiles said. "We've got to be flying around. Even if we make mistakes, we have to stay in plays. Like a lot of teams in the league, we don't have just one guy that can bail us out of situations when we get in them. We've got to be flying around all the time."